HIV/AIDS Volunteers: A history project

They came from diverse backgrounds, including gay men and members of the lesbian, bisexual and transgender community, people living with HIV/AIDS, people living with Hepatitis C, people with haemophilia, intravenous drug users, sex workers, and members of the broader community.

Volunteers played a vital role during Australia’s HIV/AIDS epidemic of the 1980s and 1990s, including being involved in community outreach, personal and end of life care and support for AIDS organisations.

A project by Dr Shirleene Robinson and Associate Professor Robert Reynolds (Macquarie University) and Associate Professor Paul Sendziuk (The University of Adelaide) are calling out to anyone who was involved in the response to contact them.

They are interested in the roles they played in HIV/AIDS organisations, the impact of this contribution on both individuals and HIV/AIDS organisations and the place of the volunteer effort in Australian history.

One Comment

Carl Milton

September 23, 2016

I wonder how I lived through this chapter of my life. As a young gay man I landed in Sydney and thought I had found paradise on Oxford Street….community, sex, drugs and party!. Then the virus landed and I was fast forwarded through issues I didn’t anticipate facing until perhaps I was in my 60’s and 70’s such as losing my friends and peers in a climate of fear and discrimination. Painful and scary as this time was I can see now how it somehow later on opened up doors of compassion and acceptance about myself that these days has enabled me to volunteer in late stage palliative care. Sometimes wisdom and change can come through suffering. I will always love and remember some of the incredibly courageous and special souls that shone in my life during those years.